Favorite Author - Erich Maria Remarque

Remarque is the author of one of my absolute favorite novels; “All Quiet on the Western Front”. I have read some of his other books too, and liked quite a few of them very well. This wasn’t in the cards when I first read Remarque though. It was in high school and an excerpt of the very book that would since be my favorite was part of an essay assignment. We could choose between 6 different topics and the excerpt was one of them. I actually think I picked that one, as the least sucky of the 6, wrote my paper and never thought of it again. I can’t actually remember how I got around to reading the full novel, but once I did I was in love. Since then I have read a few more of his books and always bring “All Quiet on the Western Front” with me when I travel, as it can stand a re-read (or several). 

Below is a list of all his works (from Wikipedia). The first date is the publishing date and the second date is the publishing date for the English translation. I have read quite a few of his novels, but none of his other works. And I actually didn’t realize he had written anything but novels. I’ll definitely check out some of his other works, as well as any unread novels. 

Novels

• (1920) The Dream Room

• (written 1924, published 1998) Gam

• (1928) Station at the Horizon

• (1929) All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)

• (1931)The Road Back (1931)

• (1936) Three Comrades (1937)

• (1939) Flotsam (1941)

• (1945) Arch of Triumph (1945)

• (1952) Spark of Life (1952)

• (1954)A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1954)

• (1956)The Black Obelisk (1957)

• (1961) Heaven Has No Favorites (1961)

• (1962) The Night in Lisbon (1964)

• (1970)The Promised Land

• (1971)Shadows in Paradise (1972)

Other works

• (1931) The Enemy (1930–1931); short stories

• (1955) The Last Act; screenplay

• (1956)Full Circle (1974); play

• (1988) The Return of Enoch J. Jones; play

• (1994) A Militant Pacifist; interviews and essays

Remarque was born in 1898 in Germany. He participated in the First World War as a German soldier. He was only 18 when he was called up. He served on the Western front, where he was wounded in 1917. He spent the rest of the war in a German army hospital. 

Before the war he had been training as a teacher, and he continued his education after the war. He taught for about 2 years before applying for a leave of absence. He worked a number of different jobs, before becoming a full time writer. He published two books, before the one that in my opinion would make him famous; “All Quiet on the Western Front”. This book details a young German soldier’s experiences in the army fighting a loosing battle on the Western front. One can only assume that a lot of it is semi-autobiographical. After this book he published other books with the same subject; war and the after-war years in Germany. 

In 1933 his books were banned and burned by the Nazis, and he had to move to his villa in Switzerland, where he stayed until he and his wife moved to the United States in 1938. Here they became citizens in 1947. In 1948 he returned to Switzerland where he lived for the rest of his life. He died in 1970 in Locarno, Switzerland. 

He was married twice and had several affairs with some of the period’s famous women including Marlene Dietrich and Hedy Lamarr. After his second wife died she left money for the New York University to start an Institute of European Studies, which is named in Remarque’s honor. 

All information is from the Wikipedia page cited above. 

A lot of Remarque’s books are about war, both the first and the second World War, and the years in between. But not all of his writing concerns war. “Heaven Has No Favorites” is the love story of a young woman and a race car driver. It is not exactly a cheerful story, I don’t think any of Remarque’s novels are, in the end, but I remember it as a beautiful story well worth your time. 

Remarque has a way with words that comes through even in translation (I don’t read German!), and I think pretty much any of his books are a good investment of your time, although I have a few favorites of course; “All Quiet on the Western Front”, “Three Comrades” and “The Road Back”. 

I hope you will give Remarque a try if you haven’t read anything by him before. Some people might feel his books are a bit outdated, but I think the subject matter is timeless.